Season 4
Season 4 of Miami Vice premiered on September 25, 1987 on NBC with the season premiere "Contempt of Court". The fourth season concluded on May 6, 1988 after 22 episodes with the Sonny Burnett cliffhanger "Mirror Image". Regular Cast *Don Johnson as Metro-Dade Detective James "Sonny" Crockett *Philip Michael Thomas as Metro-Dade Detective Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs *Saundra Santiago as Metro-Dade Detective Gina Calabrese *Michael Talbott as Metro-Dade Detective Stan Switek *Olivia Brown as Metro-Dade Detective Trudy Joplin *Edward James Olmos as Metro-Dade Lieutenant Martin "Marty" Castillo *Sheena Easton as Caitlin Davies (5 episodes) *Martin Ferrero as Isadore "Izzy" Moreno (4 episodes) Changes and Notes * While nowhere near as severe as at the start of the third season, the show nevertheless undergoes several notable changes at the start of Season 4, seemingly aimed at recapturing the feel of Seasons 1 and 2. They include: ** The extensive use of dark, gritty storylines is scaled back somewhat, although some nihilistic episodes still remain. At the other end of the scale, some of the lighter episodes veer wildly into science-fiction and comedy, most infamously the seventh episode "Missing Hours", which is often cited as the point when the series "jumped the shark". The disparity between dark episodes and light episodes lead to a decidedly uneven season. ** Pastel clothing is largely reintroduced, although some of the darker styles of the third season still appear regularly. ** Tubbs grows a beard for Season 4 and Crockett's hair reverts back to a slightly longer and shaggier version of his Season 2 hairstyle, and continues to grow slightly as the season goes on. ** Singer Sheena Easton joins the cast in "Like A Hurricane" as Crockett's girlfriend and then wife, Caitlin, appearing for five episodes until she is killed in "Deliver Us From Evil". ** Tubbs' involvement in storylines is noticeably downscaled, leading to complaints from fans and causing some people to christen Season 4 "The Don Johnson Show". ** Jan Hammer's musical contribution is also noticeably reduced, with many of his cues from earlier seasons simply being recycled. John Petersen takes over some of the scoring workload. * The show remains in its Friday 9:00 time slot until April, 1988, when it returns to its original 10:00 time slot. * Dick Wolf is promoted to Co-Executive Producer with Michael Mann. * Mann had planned to have episodes of the series in Paris and Tokyo, but those plans fell through. * This is the only season not to have a two-hour episode or an episode aired in two parts - although it can be argued that the Sonny Burnett Arc spans several episodes, as does Crockett's marriage to Caitlin. * The only cliffhanger in the series occurs this season, with the story arc involving Crockett's near-death experience, Caitlin's murder by his old enemy Hackman, and Crockett becoming his drug-dealer alter-ego Sonny Burnett carrying over into the fifth season. * The fourth season year-end rating was #41, second lowest of the five seasons. * Julia Roberts makes a early TV appearance in "Mirror Image", before her breakout roles in "Steel Magnolias" and "Pretty Woman". * Several of the episodes in this season are frequently rated by fans as the worst in the series, most notably "Missing Hours" and "The Cows of October". Music :See: Season 4 Music Episodes Category:Miami Vice Season 4 Episodes